Poof Ball Hat

I was recently asked if I could make a poof ball hat.  Though I had never made one, I responded that I could, after all, ravelry has patterns for everything.  So I went home, looked, and found the Two Ball Crochet Hat pattern.  I liked the band of this hat.  Anyway, I started working on it, basically ignoring the gauge, just making sure that it would fit my head.  This resulted in the band being 56 rows, not 80 rows, but the hat fits.  After I finished the band I continued on with the pattern and discovered that the top of the hat is a lot looser and full of holes than it looks in the pictures.  I didn't like this, so I pulled that part out and completely redid it.  Essentially the only parts of the original pattern that I kept were the band and the poof ball.

Anyway, here's the pattern:
Entire Hat is in brown except for rows 9 and 11 and the poof ball which are in cream.

ldc= linked double crochet 


Band:
Ch 10
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook, (9 sc)
Rows 2-56: ch 1, turn, sc across in back loops only (9 sc)

To join: ch 1, align edges, sl st through both edges across

Hat:
Round 1: ch 1, turn, (sc, ch 1, sk 1) around, join
Round 2: ch 1, turn, (sc in sc, sc in ch 1 sp) around, join
Round 3: ch 3, turn, ldc around, join
Round 4: ch 1, turn, sc around, join
Round 5: ch 3, turn, ldc around, join
Round 6: ch 1, turn, sc around, join
Round 7: ch 3, turn, ldc around, join
Round 8: ch 1, turn, sc around, joinRound 9: ch 1, turn, sc around, join (cream)
Round 10: ch 1, turn, sc around, join (brown)
Round 11: ch 1, turn, sc around, join (cream)
Round 12: ch 1, turn, sc around   (from this point on, do not join, or turn)
Rounds 13-17: (sc in next 5 sc, decrease) around
Rounds 18-22: (sc in next 3 sc, decrease) around

There should be 9 stitches at the end.  Fasten off, leaving a long end.  Thread this end through the stitches on the last row and pull tight.

Poof Ball:
Following the instructions on your pom pom maker, make a 2" poof ball.  I used the green on in the Susan Bates pom pom maker.  Attach poof ball to hat by threading the long end of the hat through the knots holding the poof ball together then going through the hat, then back through the knot.  Repeat this until poof ball is securely attached.  Weave in the end.

I made this using I Love this Yarn in Brown and Cream and a J hook.

Quick Baby Hat

So a friend of mine is having a baby girl soon, and her baby shower was this weekend.  I had already decided to give her a baby blanket, and let her pick it out.  About an hour before the shower, I decided to try to make a baby hat.  Because of the time constraint I decided to just design it on the fly and see if I liked it.  My first attempt started at the bottom of the hat, the largest point, and narrowed.  Midway, I looked at what I had made and it looked like it could be a skirt for a Barbie doll.  So, I simply cut the yarn and started over.  My next attempt, I started at the top and went down which worked much better.


This project came out very small, but then, babies are very small.  This was a first attempt at really designing  a baby hat, so some modification and optimization is needed.  However, my friend loved it and said that if it's too small, or once it's too small, it'll be great as a doll hat.  So in any case, it was appreciated and will be used. 

Here's how I made it:
Chain 4,
Round 1: 15 dc in 4th ch from hook, slip st to join
Round 2: ch 3, dc, (2 dc in next dc, dc in next 2 dc) around, slip st to join
Round 3-6: ch 3, dc around, slip st to join
Fasten off, weave in ends.

Fold up the last row to finish.


I made this using Baby Bee Too Sweet yarn and an E hook.